Three Connacht players named in Ireland squad for tour of Australia

The trio have all played a big part in Ireland's recent successes on the field. Aki featured in all but 20 minutes of Ireland's Grand Slam winning Six Nations campaign, while Marmion and Roux both made big contributions off the bench.

The Ireland coaching group have named a 32 man squad that includes 2 uncapped players - Ross Byrne and Tadhg Beirne - with Rory Best captaining the side

Ireland Head Coach Joe Schmidt commented, "This has probably been the most difficult selection process for the coaching group to date. We sat down on Monday morning to review the last pieces of footage and to discuss the balance and combinations that we felt we might need in Australia.

At midday today (Wednesday) we made the final decisions which included a number of very tough calls and some players are incredibly unlucky to miss out on selection.

Over the past couple of months the national coaches have spent time in the provinces and been in communication with the provincial coaches who have done a super job in managing the players across the season.

The coaching group are excited by the challenge that this three Test tour will present and from talking to the players we get a sense that they too are excited about going on Tour and testing themselves against one of the best sides in the world in their own backyard."

The summer of 2010 was the last time that Ireland last played the Wallabies in Australia with the hosts winning 22-15 at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane. Ireland return to Suncorp for the first Test of the series on Saturday 9th June.

Ireland will play their first Test against Australia in Melbourne since 2008 where last time out the Wallabies claimed the victory 18-12. The second Test of the 2018 Tour will take place at AAMI Park on Saturday 16th June.

The final Test of the series will take place on Saturday 23rd June at the Allianz Stadium in Sydney. Australia hosted Ireland at this venue is 1994 with the Wallabies winning 32-18.

FORWARDS (18)

Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster) c 111 caps

Tadhg Beirne (Scarlets) uncapped

Jack Conan (Old Belvedere/Leinster) 7 caps

Sean Cronin (St Mary’s College/Leinster) 61 caps

Tadhg Furlong (Clontarf/Leinster) 23 caps

Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster) 78 caps

Iain Henderson (Ballynahinch/Ulster) 38 caps

Rob Herring (Ballynahinch/Ulster) 3 caps

Dan Leavy (UCD/Leinster) 9 caps

Jack McGrath (St Mary’s College/Leinster) 47 caps

Jordi Murphy (Lansdowne/Leinster) 20 caps

Peter O’Mahony (Cork Constitution/Munster) 47 caps

Andrew Porter (UCD/Leinster) 7 caps

Quinn Roux (Galwegians/Connacht) 5 caps

James Ryan (UCD/Leinster) 8 caps

John Ryan (Cork Constitution/Munster) 13 caps

CJ Stander (Shannon/Munster) 23 caps

Devin Toner (Lansdowne/Leinster) 58 caps

BACKS (14)

Bundee Aki (Galwegians/Connacht) 7 caps

Ross Byrne (UCD/Leinster) uncapped

Joey Carbery (Clontarf/Leinster) 10 caps

Andrew Conway (Garryowen/Munster) 6 caps

John Cooney (Terenure College/Ulster) 1 cap

Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster) 67 caps

Robbie Henshaw (Buccaneers/Leinster) 33 caps

Rob Kearney (UCD/Leinster) 83 caps

Jordan Larmour (St Mary’s College/Leinster) 3 caps

Kieran Marmion (Corinthians/Connacht) 21 caps

Conor Murray (Garryowen/Munster) 64 caps

Garry Ringrose (UCD/Leinster) 13 caps

Johnny Sexton (St Mary’s College/Leinster) 73 caps

Jacob Stockdale (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster) 9 caps

IRELAND SUMMER TOUR 2018 FIXTURES

Saturday 9^th June, 2018

Australia v IRELAND

Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane, KO 20.05 local (11.05 IRL)

Saturday 16^th June, 2018

Australia v IRELAND

AAMI Park, Melbourne, KO 20.05 local (11.05 IRL)

Saturday 23^rd June, 2018

Australia v Ireland

Allianz Park, Sydney KO 20.05 local (11.05 IRL)

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